Automotive vehicles incorporate a variety of restraint systems to provide for the safety of vehicle occupants. For example, it is known in the vehicle art to provide various types of seat belts or restraint systems for restraining an occupant in his or her seat and providing controlled deceleration of portions of the body to limit the forces applied to the occupant's body during rapid deceleration of a vehicle from a cause such as a collision. Various types of seat belts and restraint systems have been used in automobiles, trucks, and other vehicles and are commonly known today.
Known seat belt systems typically used in commercially available production vehicles are three-point restraint systems with a lap belt and a shoulder belt extending over one shoulder of the occupant and connecting with the lap belt. The lap belts are anchored at one end to the seat or to the vehicle adjacent the seat. The shoulder belts are connected at one end to the vehicle or to the seat and at the other end to the lap belt or lap belt buckle mechanism. An additional fifth belt in the form of a crotch strap is occasionally provided in conjunction with such systems.
For all of the known advantages of four-point systems in vehicles, the actual use by the occupant of such systems could be compromised because of lack of buckle comfort. The discomfort may arise as a result of contact between the buckle-tongue assembly cover and the occupant's lap. The potential decrease in comfort could result in a decline in seat belt usage rates in vehicles equipped with four-point belt systems.
In addition, known four-point systems may be challenging for the occupant to release in that known release buttons for such systems are inconveniently positioned. An occupant wearing a four-point belt system in a vehicle may want to, driven either by convenience or by habit, unbuckle the belt system (that is, release the latched buckle) from either the right hand side or the left hand side of the buckle. Currently, belt systems can be unbuckled by release buttons located only on one side of the buckle.
Accordingly, a need exists today for an improved four-point seat belt system for use in vehicles that provides a comfortable fit as well as a convenient and efficient mechanism for releasing the buckle.